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SYCORAX PINE "I have no more ambition for this book
than that some day someone will be lying in bed
and read out a single line
- and that their companion will turn away from them in silence..."
- Don Paterson, "The Book of Shadows" ~

We are now more than a week into 2007, so it is probably time for me to face up to the fact that 2006 is over. A brief summary:

FAVORITE FILMS WATCHED IN 2006 "The Weeping Meadow" dir. Theo Angelopoulos (I was not as rigorous in recording my movies watched this past year as my book read, but this film springs immediately to mind for its painterly precision and vast beauty)"49 Up" dir. Michael Apted

% of 1001 MOVIES YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE FINISHED BY DECEMBER 31, 200647%

YEAR REACHED IN (ROUGHLY) CHRONOLOGICAL PROGRESS THROUGH "1001 MOVIES" LIST1953

FAVOURITE PLAY SEEN IN 2006"Eh Joe" by Samuel Beckettdirected by Atom Egoyan and starring Michael Gambon, at the Duke of York's Theatre in London on the 4th of July

MOST ANTICIPATED PLAY SEEN IN 2006"Rock 'N' Roll" by Tom Stoppard, at the Royal Court Theatre, London (With an extraordinary performance by Rufus Sewell in the central role)

TOTAL BOOKS READ IN 200693 Books, of which58 were graphic novels17 were non-fiction7 were collections of short stories or personal essays8 were from the list of 1001 books

% OF "1001 BOOKS YOU MUST READ BEFORE YOU DIE" READ BY DECEMBER 31, 200615%

FAVORITE BOOKS READ IN 2006 (in descending order)1) "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" by Tom Stoppard (a reread, many many times a reread)2) "Ex Libris" by the delightful Anne Fadiman3) "Great Expectations," my Dickens of 20064) "The Mayor of Casterbridge" by Thomas Hardy5) "The Vintner's Luck" by Elizabeth Knox6) "A.L.I.E.E.E.N." by Lewis Trondheim7) "The Book of Illusions" by Paul Auster